‘Jackass’ on the spot: Muse interviews Knoxville

You know what to expect from the movie ‘Jackass.’ There’s no plot, no storyline, no chronology. Just 90 minutes of nonstop laughs. That is, of course, assuming you find a pack of guys injuring themselves and doing disgusting things to their bodies entertaining. Disgusting is perhaps an understatement, for someone in the movie wound up puking virtually every five minutes from watching or doing something so utterly repulsive that even these hardened pranksters couldn’t keep their lunch down.

For those of you not fortunate enough to have seen ‘Jackass’ while it was on MTV, it is essentially a skate video minus the skating. It is basically just a full film of various clips where these crazy guys run around playing pranks on innocent passerby, doing disgusting things to themselves and trying to hurt themselves in every way imaginable. As Johnny Knoxville, one of the stars said, ‘If you do [a stunt] and it hurts, that generally means good.’ The film is promoted by saying that finally they can do all the things they always wanted to do on TV and couldn’t, and they truly push the line in this movie. As Johnny Knoxville said in an interview, ‘It’s just a naughty 90 minute version of the show. Very naughty. Lots of things going in and out of holes.’

This bunch of friends ran around three continents terrorizing mainly old people (Johnny Knoxville said they give the best reactions) and each other. What makes the movie so great is that you can tell all the guys are having a blast while pulling all their stunts and pranks. Johnny Knoxville proudly announced, ‘This woman in Japan said we were actually worse when the cameras were off.’

The key to enjoying this film is realizing that it’s a joke. As Johnny Knoxville said, ‘Everyone knew it was a movie and everyone acted their complete worst.’ Don’t go into the theater expecting a great story; expect to see a bunch of fun and crazy guys doing horrible and repugnant things to their bodies. Don’t expect stellar acting skills; they were all drunk for most of the movie. In fact, Johnny Knoxville showed up to the interview reeking of alcohol and cigarettes, and he was so hung over he could barely walk straight much less carry on an intelligent conversation.

But no one goes to see ‘Jackass’ for intelligent conversations. However, do prepare to be revolted at what you will see. Johnny Knoxville could barely keep his laughter down when he said, ‘You’ll never look at little toy cars the same again. Or Ryan Dunn.’